June 2, 2025

My dear Community:

A mere ten days ago, we mourned the loss of two young Israeli Embassy staffers, who were shot dead as they were leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum. Just yesterday, as Shavuot was setting in, I got word of another attack, this time in Boulder, Colorado, directed at a peaceful demonstration calling for the return of the remaining October 7 hostages to their families (or their mourners, as the case may be). 

It’s clear we are living in serious times, for which there are no easy solutions. In such moments, the temptation to despair can be overwhelming. Indeed it can seem like the only sensible response. 

And yet, our tradition teaches us that, even in the face of such horror, there is ever the possibility of hope, of redemption. The Piasceczner Rebbe, the Rabbi who served in the Warsaw Ghetto wrote: Even in a time when a person sees, God forbid, no logical opening for faith, they still believe that God will save them, and they draw strength through this faith and trust.

We have the Piasceczner Rebbe’s writings because someone thought to preserve them. This is an act of wild hope, of which we are the beneficiaries. We owe it to future generations to hold the same wild hope, for their sake.

On this Shavuot, as we celebrate the gift of Torah—defiantly joyful—let us give one another the gift of not giving up. Not on each other. Not on our tradition. Not on the possibility of a more peaceful way forward. 

May we pull one another through to better times. 

As always, I am here for you if you need to talk.

Yours in sorrow and hope,

Rav Naomi